Note: Although my experience is with Debian, I think this post helps anyone using some modern Linux distribution.

What is TRIM?

As a Windows sysadmin, I didn't really consider the cons of running on top of Solid-State Drives, or SSDs. These drives are based on flash memory (similar to a Disk-On-Key), rather than metallic plates.
A big difference between magnetic hard drives and SSDs is block reuse.
more ...

The Issue

Sometime I want to inspect software repositories. However, I don't want my machine to actually install anything from it.
To do so, I made a small bash function that both adds the repository and pins it to priority -1, telling apt to never install anything from it
(unless manually told …

The Story
For reasons unknown to me, Debian's NTP daemon only works on udp port
123, even when operating as a client.
This is a problem because my network configuration does not allow
incoming packets on this port, thus preventing my raspberrySeed
(raspberry pi running Debian, deluge, flexget) from syncing …